Basic Observations

Class reading and discussion:

• Experiencing Architecture by Rasmussen
• Handout: Chapter 1 "Basic Observation"

Assignment: In your sketchbook, draw the objects in your immediate surroundings that you encounter and interact with every day, i.e. bed sheets, toothbrush, walls, chair, etc. OBSERVE first. See what it means to have "hard" and "soft" surfaces, "light" and "heavy" objects. Draw shapes and textures according to these words. Also your line weights of your drawn objects MUST also reflect "hard, soft, light, and heavy." Each object should be drawn encompassing the an entire page. Drawing small is unnecessary and does not help you further your process in understanding an objects edge and line. Remember, "express" the line, not the object. Objects are lines and edges, so don't focus on drawing the object. i.e. don't draw a ball. Draw the shape.
Not only will you draw the object, your lineweights should also be expressive of these words. Note: Dull pencils are unacceptable drawings. Always have a sharpened tip and use a 3B or higher.

SITE

SITE

Man uses shapes to help understand our spatial relationship to things. We are tactile, have memories, are shaped in a way to allow different levels of contact with the landscape (i.e. we move, walk, stand, sit, see, feel, touch, smell, etc.)

The landscape itself contains shapes developed through the elements and the factor of time. Nature has such history and perfection. We try to solve these mysteries by our standards of solutions and knowledge, Numbers.

We are discovering the landscape and learning what it means and what it is trying to say. We don't know much about it still. Our curiosity and desire to discover help us to find a closer relationship to that of objects that exist.

We are intuitive creatures and our memories allow our intuition to thrive. We think, therefore we exist. Like nature, we evolve and change. As forms evolve and change, landscape is a constant. We look to the site as a way to understand what we build.


Process of Creating Method
1. Observation(to see, perceive, to feel(tactile)
Observe the landscape through its x,y cartesian coordinates.
2. Analysis(sketchbook document, collecting)
3. (Re)-present(words, still images, film, objects)

Observe
Landscape in its Natural State (untouched)

• The landscape exists with materials, color, texture, structure, shapes, a natural order and metaphor.

Analyze
Landscape in its Natural/Re-present State (un/touched)

• Document the shapes and find truth and simplicity to its forms. How do shapes relate to one another? What is its physical properties? How does it live, grow, and die, in nature.
  
• Where do their forms come from?
• What are simple shapes? What are evolved shapes?
• Analyze using numbers and equation
• What is the metaphors of objects.
  

Re-present
Landscape in its (Re)present State (touched)

• How do you interpret the world after observation and analysis using both words and form?
• How do you respect the true nature of the form while allowing the human intervention to affect its form?
• What is the poetic value or importance to your creation?
• How will your object change in the landscape using the Horizontal and Vertical Analysis?
• How do you re-present the presence of time?
• How does the human body and its perceptions relate to your form/object?
  

Horizontal and Vertical Analysis
There are characters that exist that transform and evolve the landscape; the Earth, Wind, Air, Water, Sun, and (Outer-Space).

VERTICAL ANALYSIS

SPACE
|
SUN
|
AIR
|
WATER (RAIN)
|
WATER (RIVERS,OCEANS)
|
EARTH (SOIL)



Elements of Change


OUTER-SPACE

• proof that there is more to be discovered
• Untouched Worlds, Curiosity, Dreamers, Fountain of Youth
• "We are not alone."
• provides a scale of existence (i.e. bright stars as planets)

SUN

• presents(see) the world in day and night using light and shadow
• gives life, growth(vertical), and death/deterioration/weathering to objects
• provides heat
• makes time exist (i.e. day, night)

AIR

• has no boundary
• is invisible
• holds life (oxygen)
• is vast
• allows for wind to travel through

WIND (action)

• travels
• exists in the air
• moves objects
• moves/transforms/deforms object
• horizontal element
  

WATER

• horizontal and vertical element
• liquid
• passive or rough
• gives life
• travels
• movement relates to the wind and gravity

EARTH

• soil that bears life, growth, and death
• acts as a foundation, a datum, "we are grounded."
• contains layers of physical history (build-up, verticality)
• objects root into it

Static Objects
Earth (clay, sand, dirt)
Moss
Stone
Twigs
Leaves
Trees
Ice


COMBINATION EQUATION

STATIC OBJECT + ELEMENTS OF CHANGE = TIME = EXISTENCE



ASSIGNMENT
Create an object in the landscape using Process of Creating Method, Horizontal and Vertical Analysis, and Combination Equation.

Draw a plan view, a section view, and all elevations(sides).
Each drawing must be as large as the page in your sketchbook.
One drawing per page.
Your lineweights must vary in density, lightness and darkness must be expressed, and shadows must be present.